Entrepreneurs earn a reputation for ambition and grit by doing whatever they can to win new business. However, growth brings a unique set of leadership challenges to tackle.

In order to meet increased demand, it is important for you to strategically add new talent to the team as needed. Hiring is a notoriously involved process, often unique to each individual company. Perfecting your hiring methodology is an ongoing project that warrants the large amount of planning and resource it tends to receive.

However, every entrepreneur should know that getting the right person into the room is just the beginning. As much effort as is invested into hiring, just as much (if not more) should be allocated to setting new employees up for success once they have joined the team.

You need to offer more than just training – you need to onboard new hires. Onboarding certainly encompasses training, but its full scope includes the thoughtful design of everything your employees feel, see, and hear after they accept their offer.

Make A Plan Of Attack

A detailed, comprehensive plan for onboarding, specific to your company’s culture and goals, is the first step to success. Encouraging a natural or unstructured quality to how your new team members integrate themselves into the office community is a noble ideal, but it should never come at the cost of efficiency and effectiveness. Guarantee that new employees are provided with what hiring managers often call the “Four C’s.” These are compliance, clarification, culture and connection.

Compliance refers to basic legal and company-specific policies that your employees need to know. Your organization’s rules and regulations should be abundantly clear. At my company, we offer ample opportunity to not just read, review and hear all about them, but also encourage questions and active learning with “Ask Me Anything” sessions. These allow new hires to comfortably clear up any potential confusion as quickly as possible.

Clarification means providing as much information as possible regarding the new hire’s specific role and how it fits into the company’s “big picture.” Think of it as bringing the job description to life. Do not be afraid to get hands-on with your training. We build “Ride Along” sessions into our onboarding itineraries, during which new hires not only shadow and support an employee who shares their job function, but they also rotate into other departments for firsthand exposure to the full breadth of our business.